Nonfiction November, 2014

November 5, 2014

NONFICTION NOVEMBER, 2014

With this post I am joining a group reading and reviewing nonfiction books. Each week we will be addressing a different question about the non-fiction we read.
Since the beginning of 2014, I have enjoyed and reviewed lots of non-fiction. Most of it has been off-beat history of one kind or another—which is not surprising for me. Some of it I am glad to have a chance to recommend to other readers.MY FAVORITES:Modern Motherhood: An American History, by Jodi Vandenberg-Daves. (Multi-cultural, not just for mothers or Americans, but about how women get defined.)The Secret History of Wonder Woman, by Jill Lepore. (The comic strip, the unique feminists who created it, and its place in feminism.)Fields of Blood: Religion and the History of Violence, by Karen Armstrong. (Global from ancient to present and very well done.)James Tiptree, jr: The Double Life of Alice B. Shelton, by Julie Phillips. (The biography of a woman who gained fame by writing science fiction as a man. Important insight on gender and writing)Lenape among the Quakers, by Dawn Marsh. (Native American woman’s interaction with colonial settlers. A new way to write history.)Manliness and Civilization, by Gail Bederman. (The development of a rhetoric of white male supremacy in the 20th century.)

OTHER NONFICTION I HAVE READ AND REVIEWED:
Generations Removed:The Fostering and Adoption of Indian Children in the Post-War World, by Margert Jacobs
Downwind: A People’s History of the Nuclear West, by Sarah Alisabeth Fox.
Fu-Go: The Curious History of Japan’s Balloon Bomb Attack on America, by Ross Coen.
Surviving Peace: A Political Memoir, by Olivera Simic.
Women of the Raj: The Mothers, Wives, and Daughters of the British Empire in India, by Margaret MacMillan.
The Coral Battleground, by Judith Wright.
Choctaw Crime and Punishment, 1884-1907, by Devon Abbott Mihesuah.
Who Owns American History? The Smithsonian and the Problem of History, by Robert C. Post.
The Pink Sari Revolution: A Tale of Women and Power in India, by Amana Fontanella-Khan
Yards and Gates: Gender in Harvard and Radcliffe History, edited by Laurel Ulrich.
A Princess Remembers: The Memoirs of the Mahrani of Jaiper, by Gayatri Devi.
Translated Woman: Crossing the Border with Experanza’s Story, by Ruth Behar.
Inventing Human Rights, by LynnHunt.
Plato at the Googleplex: Why Philosophy Won’t Go Away, by Rebecca Newberger Goldstein.

What is one topic or type of nonfiction you haven’t read enough of yet?
I’d like to read more non-fiction by people of color, especially history by them. I’d also like to read more histories of people in diverse parts of the world—not their political histories, but about the lives of the people.What are you hoping to get out of participating in Nonfiction November?
Discussion of what it means to read non-fiction and recommendations for more good books.
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